Mendelssohn: The complete works for cello and piano

Reviews

This is a disc on which the stance of the playing ideally matches the scale and perspective of the music. Mendelssohn’s works for cello and piano are not numerous but, with two sonatas together with the “Variations concertantes” and a couple of miniatures, they fit neatly onto one CD. Mendelssohn was not a cellist, but he had a brother who was, and it was for him that he wrote the “Variations concertantes” and the two sonatas. Given Mendelssohn’s talents as a pianist, it is understandable that in his duo music he did not exactly underplay the pianist’s virtuoso requirements, but here in the chopping and changing of priorities in the “Variations concertantes” Marie Macleod and Martin Sturfält weave a scintillating, tightly knit fabric, full of colour and energy. Instinctive coordination and passion are maintained in the B flat Sonata No 1, the cello’s tonal spectrum and the piano’s variety of touch and weight astutely and expressively applied both to the music’s lyricism and to its bravura flourishes. They also possess exciting panache for the D major Sonata No 2, a performance combining brilliance with emotional warmth. (Daily Telegraph)